THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND

CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE

TOBA-BATAK OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
 KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT
VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE
TRANSLA nON SERIES 7

THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND

CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE
TOBA-BATAK OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

BY

J. C. VERGOUWEN

WITH A PREFACE BY]. KEUNING

PUBLICATION COMMISSIONED AND FINANCED BY

THE NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR
INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL RELATIONS

Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y: 1964

 TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH BY JEUNE SCOTT·KEMBALL

Add itional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com

ISBN 978-94-015-0415-7 ISBN 978-94-015-1035-6 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-1035-6

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1964

 PREFACE

.J. c. Vergouwen 's work , H et R echtsleven der T'oba-Bataks, here

presented in an English translation, was published in the autumn of
1933, a few weeks before the author's death at the early age of 44 from
tuberculosis, from which he had suffere d since 1930. During the time
he spent in a sanatorium in Davos and later in the Netherlands, he
began and completed his monograph on th e customary law of the
Toba-Batak. His book immediately became one of the outstanding
works of Dutch scholarship on Indonesian customary law (Adat law).
Jacob Cornelis Vergouwen began his career as an administrative
officer in South Borneo (now K alimantan ) in 1913, after a brief prac-
tical training. In 1921 he was given the opportunity for further study
at the University of L eiden where a five-year scientific training for a
career as an administrative officer in the Dutch East Indies had just
been instituted. On obtaining his Master's degr ee, he was appointed to
the Tapanuli Residency, from of old , the homeland of the Toba,
M andailing, Angkola, and Dairi or Pakpak Batak.
As a young offic ial, Vergouwen had already evinced great interest in
th e laws and customs of th e Dayak people in Borneo. His studies at the
University brought him into close contact with the founder of the
science of Indonesian Adat law, Professor Cornelis van Vollenhoven,
one of th e greatest Dutch jurists of this century.
Since 1901, Van Vollenhoven had been teaching, among other things,
Indonesian Adat Law at th e University of Leiden. For his research he
divided the Dutch East Indies into 19 law areas ('r echtskringen' ) based
on the existing diversity in the laws and customs of the peoples in the
various parts of Indonesia. By 1918 he had completed the first scholarly
description of the unwritten customary law in these 19 'homeonomic'
groups. He found his material for it by laboriously searching through
the anthropological literature of the time, in accounts of travels, in
official reports, in the communications of Protestant and Roman Catholic
missionaries and in adat law judgements, at that time only published
sporadically. It was a masterly work ; scholarly pioneering in the true
sense. Van Vollenhoven work ed out a fixed and specific taxonomy and
introduced special terms for the qualification of the legal facts and the
VI CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE TOBA-BATAK

legal concepts appropriate to the nature and content of the unwritten

Indonesian law. He broke away from the attempts to squeeze this law
into the straightjacket of legal taxonomy and legal terms current in
Dutch code-law, which owed their meaning and their suitability to this
Western legal system. *
With an adequate taxonomy, with a legal terminology of its own and
a specific approach, the science of adat law came to be acknowledged
as a young tree standing on its own in the park of Dutch legal science:
a yet small waringin amidst and beside the oaks and elms of the study
of Western law in the Netherlands.
Van Vollenhoven gave all his great gifts of mind and heart in the
service of the study of Indonesian adat law. A great inspiration and a
desire to study the laws and customs of Indonesian ethnic groups flowed
from him to his students, with whom he remained in constant contact
after they had begun their duties as judge or administrative officer in
the Dutch East Indies. Van Vollenhoven has had a great influence on
the striking development in the study of Indonesian adat law. During
his entire scholarly career - he died in 1933 when he was nearly 59 -
he strove for the recognition and the just appreciation of this autoch-
thonous Indonesian law, both in the administration of justice and in the
management of internal affairs. In 1909 he wrote his booklet with the
significant title, Miskenningen van het Adatrecht (Four Cases of Lack
of Acknowledgement of Adat Law), and in 1919, De Indonesier en zijn
grond (The Indonesian and his Land), in which, with a number of
arguments drawn from scholarship and practical experience, he took a
stand against Government plans in respect of land rights, because he saw
them as a violation of the autochthonous legal system of the Indonesian
people. In his splendid article, 'Juridisch confectiewerk ; eenheidsprivaat-
recht voor Indie' (Ready-ma:de Legislation; A Uniform Civil Code for
the Indies), written in 1925,** he exposed. the artificiality, the unrealistic
nature and the practical inapplicability of a proposed uniform civil
code with a Dutch trade mark which was intended for all groups of
peoples in the Dutch East Indies - Dutch, Chinese, Arabs, Indians, etc.,
as well as for the Indonesians from all parts of the large and diversified

* Arthur Philips draws attention to this aspect of Van Vollenhoven's work in

Africa (Vol. XIX, 1949, p . 248) : " . .. and the treatment of this subject (land
rights, J. K .) is marked by the use of a special terminology originally intro-
duced by Van Vollenhoven as a remedy for the confusion caused by the
adoption of terms carrying a European legal connotation."
** Reprinted in Het Adatrecht van Ne derlan dsch-Ln die , Vol. III, Leiden, 1933 ,
pp, 719 - 743.
 PREFACE VII

archipelago. This Bill thereupon disappeared silently under the table.

The point of view, enunciated with such fervour by Van Vollenhoven
and his supporters that, for the sake of justice, customary law should be
acknowledged as being of at least the same ideal and practical value
for the Indonesians and their social relationships as Western law is for
the people in Western society, had by this time found a response among
the highest policy-making Government a u thorities. A half-hearted taking
into account of the autochthonous Indonesian law changed into a
positive appraisal. As early as 1924, a Law University was established
in Batavia (now Djakarta) wh ere B. ter Haar - one of Van Vollen-
hoven's outstanding students - started to teach adat law, which he
continued to do until 1939. *
In 1928 a commission was appointed with the object of advising the
Gov ernment on the principles of agrarian legislation in the Dutch East
Indies, and adat law jurists were freed to do research in various law
areas. Another important feature of this new attitude towards adat law
was that an investigation was ordered into the administration of justice
in adat law cases, the aim being to effect a new and better regulation
thereof. A pilot study was deemed nec essary for that purpose and this
brings us - after a perhaps overlong digression - - back to Vergouwen
and his work.
In May 1927, Vergouwen was relieved of his usual administrative
duties and charged with the leadership of the highest Customary Courts
(the so-called Rapat na bolon , literally, the Great Courts) in the Toba
Batak country with, at the same time, instructions to embody his findings
in a report and to make recommendations for reforms in the existing
judicial organisation. This report appeared in 19 30 (see p. 1 note 1) .
On its completion, Vergouwen went on leave to the Netherlands where
he sta rted, on his own initiative, the writing of his book, H et Rechts-
leven der Toba-Bataks. That he completed this work in spite of his
lingering and fatal illness, demonstrates his great interest in Toba-Batak
society and its laws and customs ; an interest which did not restrain him
from making some rather critical observations in respect of particular
facets of the culture of the Toba-Batak and their conceptions of right
and wrong. In my opinion, he had a right to do so by virtue of his
knowledge of their jural relationships and the disputes daily brought
before him as President of the Courts, and his social intercourse with

* Ter Haar published a concise manual in 1939 : Beg inselen en Sielsel van het
Adatrecht ; translated into English and published by the Institute of Pacific
Relations, New York, 1948 , under the title : Adatlaw in Indonesia.
VIII CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE TOBA-BATAK

all levels of their society. He was no outsider dependent upon informants

and enquiries; he had played an important part in deciding disputes
and lawsuits of all kinds.
In a review of Vergouwen's book, Ter Haar says: "Ret Rechtsleven
der T oba-Bataks is truly a fine book. The indigenous society and its
many-sided and complex relationships are studied and described 'from
the inside' and customary law is shown as a pattern running through
the entire social fabric." These words I readily endorse. I still remember
clearly how much help this book was to me when I was a student of
adat law in Leiden from 1931-34 endeavouring to grasp the inter-
relationship of the Toba-Batak legal facts, and even more do I recall
how, in 1935, as a young Government official, I had immediately on
arrival in the Batak country the feeling that I had entered a known
and understandable world. Above all, Vergouwen's study was a source,
difficult to surpass, from which I acquired a knowledge and a com-
prehension of Toba-Batak laws and customs when I was President of
the highest Customary Courts in 1940 and 1941. It made it possible for
me to discuss with the chiefs, as members of the courts, on a footing of
equality, as it were, the value and the meaning of the varying statements
of the parties and the witnesses, and after that to establish, in collabo-
ration with them, the rule to he applied to the case before the court.
Vergouwen's exposition, moreover, showed the way to those relationships
where an attempt at conciliation, or a mediatory settlement, could lead
to a result satisfactory to both parties in their mutual relationships. The
non-Batak President could collaborate 'from the inside' on the judicial
findings and, what was also very important, could play his part in the
development of the law by way of the administration of justice, under
changing social conditions which modified concepts of right and wrong
in social and economic life.
In my opinion rightly, Vergouwen has described Toba-Batak adat law,
in its flexibility, within the framework of the social structure and forms
of organisation as based on kinship and co-dwelling in village, territory
and in the wider groupings. It seems to me that for this reason his book
is not out-of-date and will not easily become out-of-date either, whatever
changes may have taken place since 1930 in Indonesia in general and
in the Toba-Batak country in particular. Vergouwen gives no hard and
fast code-rules which, as such, must be upheld when they no longer
correspond to the social reality. New situations and conditions can only
be understood against the background of older and recent cultural and
socio-economic history. On this point, one finds in Vergouwen the
 PREFACE IX

necessary data and their context. Naturally, his explanations of the

principles and the forms of expression of particular Batak institutions
are not always the only ones possible ; here and there he may lay too
much stress on the magico-religious element. Vergouwen did his research
and wrote his book upwards of 30 years ago, and he was, moreover,
not an anthropologist by profession." But, it seems to me, that this
does not alter the fact that from his book one can become acquainted
with the Toba-Batak people and understand their social and juridical
life in diachronic perspective. This establishes the value of this book
for the present day. Dutch cultural anthropologists esteem highly
Het Rechtsleven der T'oba-Bataks. In it they have found much important
material for theoretical studies in the field of kinship and affinal relation-
ships in a patrilineal society with an asymmetrical connubium.
I am pleased that funds have been made available for the trans-
lation of Vergouwen's book into English. One of the best Dutch works
on Indonesian adat law can now be made accessible to the international
world of students of social anthropology and customary law.
The translation of a scholarly work of this nature is always a hazard-
ous undertaking, particularly when the author can neither supervise it
nor influence it. In translating Vergouwen's book into English a number
of problems presented themselves. He wrote in a rather old-fashioned
style of Dutch in which long sentences, built up of subordinate clauses
which were meant to explain the main theme, were frequent. These
have been broken down for the sake of readability. He also refers to
Government measures or plans for reforms which are not relevant to
the present day and I have taken the liberty of either deleting these
passages from the translation or, in some cases, have given a shortened
version. But, these minor alterations apart, Vergouwen's disquisition has
not been altered : the present translation is his book in substance and in
spirit. And the translator, in reproducing the essentials and the details
of his work has succeeded, in my view, in achieving, as far as such is
possible in a translation, conformity with the style in which the original
is written.
Such minor, or perhaps major, errors as occur in the English syntax
must be attributed to last-minute alterations in the final draft. For thes e
I accept responsibility. J. KEUNING
University of Lciden

* For this reason his theoretical digression on the possibility that a matrilineal
kinship system preceded the present patrilineal organisation was omitted from
the translation. It is no longer accepted in social-anthropological theory.
 CONTENTS

Introduction

The genealogy of the Batak people . 6

CHAPTER 1. Genealogical structure: the kinship system 17

A. Kinship 17
The nature and extent of the Batak's knowledge of their descent 17.
The main lines of the genealogical structure: general distribution 21.
A . THE LONTl!NG MOIETY 21 ; Limbong, Sagala and Malau 22; the
Lontung group 22 ; the Borbor complex 24. B. THE SUMBA MOI ETY 25 ;
the Nai Ambaton division 25 ; the Nai Rasaon division 25 ; the Nai
Suanon div ision 26 ; the Pohan group 27 ; the Sipaettua group 27 ;
the Silahis abungan group 27; the Radja Oloan group 28 ; Sihombing
and Simamora 28 ; the Sobu (Hasibuan) group 29 ; the Naipospos
group 29. The age of the tribal groups and marga 30. The meaning
of " m arga" 30. The lineage, saompu 32 . The lineage as a ceremonial
and sacrificial community 34. Sapanganan 34. The larger genealogical
communities 35. Connection with the giving of women in marriage 36.
The kinship group in village and territory 37. The agnatic kinship
system 37. The uaris concept 40. Disputes about descent 41. Changing
one's marga 42. The significance of the patrilineal structure 42 .

B. The Affin es 44
Establishment and consolidation of the affinal relationship 44. The
affinal relationship in th e wider context 47 . The affines as a group 48.
The in-dwelling marga boru 50 . Marriage frequency 53. The magico-
reli gious character of the affinal relationship 54. The mangupa boru
56 . Adoption of a hula-hula 57. Participation in ceremonies 57. Gifts
between affines 58 . Ulos gifts 58 . Ulos gifts other than cloths 59.
Motives for giving gifts 60. The piso gifts 6L T'ulang-ibebere, brother-
sister 63 . The affinity relationship and the administration of justice 64.
A kinship and affinity relationship system 66.

CHAPTER II. Religious concepts 67

The gods 67. The spirits 69. The sumangot 70. The sombaon 7L The
bius sacrificial community 73. The parbaringin-organisation 75. Some
XII CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE TOBA-BATAK

further details concerning the bius 76. Participation in sacrificial

ceremonies 78. The human being's tondi 79. The tondi personified 80.
The tondi as the source of supernatural power 82. The mangupa
tondi 84. Food and meals 87. The na margoar 88 . Aims and efficacy
of meals 92 . Manulangi 94. The batu ni sulang-sulang 95. The efficacy
of speech 95. Dondon tua 98. Sampe tua 99. The homitan ni tondi 99.
Magical purification = pangurason 101. The influence of Christianity
102.

CHAPTER III. The corporate communities (haradja on) . 105

The village 105. The tribal group 106. The corporate characteristics
of the tribal group 107. The village as a corporate community 108.
The territories between huta and tribal group 117; one land-control-
ling group 118; the group accepting responsibility for crime and for
the administration of justice 119; one onan 120; one homban (spring),
one pangulubalang (centre of supernatural power) , one ruma par-
santian (house for the ancestral spirit) 121; one mother-village (huta
parserahan) 121; one common in-dwelling marga boru 122 ; one group
for giving its daughters in marriage 123 ; one group governed by
chiefs (panggomgomion) 124. Djandji 126. Government interference
with the social and political structure 127. The nature of the chiefs
authority 130.

CHAPTER IV. Some general observations 137

Legal maxims, umpama 137. The immutability of traditional law 140.
Inter-communal law 141. The law and contracts 142. Difficulties of
investigating the law 143. Apparent stability of the law 144. Slackness
in legal proceedings 145. The law within the kinship group 147.
Development of the law 150. The older history of customary law 151.
Legal terminology 152.

CHAPTER V. Matrimonial law (Adat pardongan-saripeon) 156

General characteristics 156. The various forms of marriage 157. No
adoptive marriage 158. The laws of exogamy 158. Other forms of
marsumbang 162. General stipulations for marriage 165. Social inter-
course between young people 165. The young man begins his quest:
mangaririt 166. The domu-domu 168. Betrothal pledges 169. In-
admissible relationships 169. · Informing the parents 170. Determining
the marriage payment 171. The allocation of the marriage payment:
the djambar na gok 173. The ragi-ragi 174. Confirmation of th e
betrothal 174. Collecting the parts of the marriage payment 176. The
marundjuk or mangan djuhut 176. The party given by the bride and
her fr iends 181. The m arba gas 182. The Church's blessing 183. Con-
 CONTENTS XIII

eluding a Mohammedan marriage 184. The departure to the husband's

village 18·1. The role of parents in a betrothal 185. The boru sihunti
utang 186. Parumaen di losung 187. Reasons for child betrothal 188.
Betrothal formalities: presents and counter-presents 189. Breaking off
a child betrothal 190. The young people's freedom 191. Defence
against parental compulsion 193. The parboru and the paranak 193.
The parboru after the marriage 195. The upa tulang 196. Constituents
of the marriage payment 196. Evidence regarding the marriage pay-
ment 198. The assistance of the higher chiefs 201. The dowry,
pauseang 202 . Presents during marriage 210 . Marriage following
abduction = mangabing boru 211. Marriage after elopement = man-
galua boru 214. Marriage after seduction by the girl = mahiturun or
maliuempe 215. Marriage after rape 215. Living-in marriage =
marsonduk hela 216. Setting up one's own household = mandjae 217.
The married couple's mutual relations 220 . The legal competence of
the married woman 222. Relationship to members of the family:
subang, pantang 224. The children of the marriage 225. Gifts to the
children: the indahan arian 226. Discipline, repudiation 227. Respon-
sibility for offences committed by one's children 227. Coming of age
228. Adoption of children 229. Namegiving 230. Bigamy 232. Disso-
lution of a marriage 237. Death of a wife: her replacement 238. The
death of the husband 239. Pasae tudjung 240. The pasaehon: the
complete separation of the widow 241. Levirate, pareakhon; widow-
remarriage 242 . Children and property in levirate and widow re-
marriage 245. The widow who remains unmarried 246 . The widow
is no part of the estate 247 . Divorce, porsirangan 248 . Causes 248 .
Mode of divorce 255 . The amount of the marriage payment to be
returned 259. Breaking off a betrothal 262. Langkup 262. Marital
infidelity and other moral transgressions 265 . Illegitimate children
267.

CHAPTER VI. Inheritance law (Adat taringot tu tading-

tadingan) 270
Main parts 270. The inheritance 271. The expenses on the estate 274.
The heirs 280. Allocating the portions of the inheritance 281. The
rights of daughters 285. Succession to office 288.

CHAPTER VII. The law of land tenure (Adat partanoon) 290

CHAPTER VIII. The law relating to debts (Adat dibagasaii

pardabu-dabuanon ) 292
Terminology and nature 292 . Objects of transactions and contracts
293. General requirements of legal transactions 296. Contracting
XIV CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE TOBA-BATAK

agreements 298. The help of the domu-domu 300 . Witnesses, their

function and remuneration 301. Mutual binding of the parties 302.
Extra-contractual rights and obligations 304. Fulfilling contracts 306.
Appeal for clemency, asi ni roha 311. The actual transfer 312.
Arbitrary enforcement in respect of agreements 313. Responsibility
of the group to which the debtor belongs 315. No mixing of claims
316. Gift-giving 317~ Exchange 318. Joint ownership 319. Custody
and maintenance 323. Profit-sharing 325. Share-cropping 325. Loaning
and borrowing 326 . Rendering service: peons, slaves, artisans 327 .
Buying and selling 328. Hiring 332 . Money debts: utang singir 332.
Interest stipulations 333. Money loans 334. Security and pledging
335. Pledging land 338. Standing surety 341. Insolvency 342. Corpo-
rations and associations 343. Responsibility for damage 346.

CHAPTER IX. The law of offences (Panguhumon tu angka

parsala) 349
Confession of guilt and atonement 350 . The injured party 351. The
community 352. The supernatural effect of the offence 353 . Personal
vengeance 354. Security; the restoration of harmony 354. The rules
relating to disciplinary measures 355. The means of legal redress and
of defence against offences 355. Punishments having a magico-
religious character 356 . Compensation and fines 361. Other sanc-
tions 362 . Intent and guilt 364 . Responsibility of people other than
the offender 365. Summary justice 366. Is there always a previous
rule? 367 . Some other data of a general character 369 . Particular
offences 371. Verbal insult 371. Moral transgressions 371. Disturbing
of peace and order 372. Infringing authority 372. Violation of the
general welfare 373. Offences against the person 374. Offences against
property 375.

CHAPTER X. Settling disputes (Ruhut ni parhataon) 377

Origin of disputes 377. Tracing and preventing offences 378.
Masitolonan = administering the oath mutually 379. The mangudji;
proof by competition 380. Marmusu = going to war 380. Mediator &
judge 381. The administration of justice and affinal relationships 384.
Introductory gifts 385. Respect for the court 386. The attributes of
a judge 388. The hearing in public 389. Parties: representation and
assistance 389 . Complaint and defence: the judges' attitude 390 .
The proof of the facts 393. Information and advice 395. Witnesses
396. Documents 398. Circumstantial evidence : presumption of fact
400. The tanda 402 . The oath 402. The result of the lawsuit 409.
The amicable settlement: pardamean or pardengganan 410 . The
 CONTENTS xv
judgement: uhum 412. Content of the judgement 413. The adminis-
tration of justice by the chiefs and customary law 417. The long-
neglected complaint 418. The Porang Tangga Batu limitation 419.
Implementation 421.

Appendices 424

Index of Batak words . 439

Legal Maxims and Aphorisms 459

Tapanuli: Map of the Tribal Areas . (at back)